Sarah and Charles Littles.

 

(The Falls Field Tragedy! Rochester, 1858.)

In December 1857 the marriage of Charles and Sarah Littles was essentially over. Sarah had moved out because of Charles’s heavy drinking and multiple affairs. Charles was extremely jealous and in spite of his extramarital love life, he wanted Sarah back. He continued to harass her, angering her brother, Ira Stout.

That December, the body of Charles Littles, beaten and mangled, was found on the banks of the Genesee River in Falls Field, Rochester, New York. There was enough evidence to indict Sarah and her brother for murder. Amid rumors of incest and blackmail, Sarah was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to Sing Sing Prison. Ira, guilty of first-degree murder, was hanged in October 1858.

Read the full story here: The Falls Field Tragedy.